Team ROAD: Intros
by The Unplanner
Summary: These are introductions for a team of OCs I made up with my brother. Three of the OCs are mine, but the O in ROAD is his, so I can't write an intro for him. I might use these characters for a larger story later. Some violence and discrimination are to be expected within. This is a world where everything is a gun, after all.
1. R-Right Weapon for the Job

**Team ROAD Intros**

 **R: Right Weapon for the Job**

 _Summary: It doesn't matter what the job is. Meet Rust Roader: Team leader, auto mechanic, multitool weaponmaster. One of four intros for my Atlesian OC team, co-created with my brother._

 _Author's Notes: For Rust's dad, Mr. Roader, picture the generic old guy from the first episode, and from every other time something bad happens to a generic old guy. He doesn't need a name, really, since he's only going to show up in one or two scenes._

 _For Rust's combat stance, think Sora from Kingdom Hearts, only with a bigger sword._

 _My brother's pen-name is FierceDeityMask, and he writes some good video game poetry that actually rhymes!_

 **RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR**

"Rust, my boy! I've got another lost cause here!" An old man called out into the back room of his family-owned shop, "Rust in Peace." The family business specialized in weapon and vehicle repair.

A mop of spiky, red hair popped up behind a workbench. Rust's flame-orange eyes snapped to the doorway like a puppy who just heard the word "treat." As expected, a rusty rifle flew through the opening. It snapped into two halves when Rust caught it in his brown biker gloves. "Awesome, thanks Dad! I'll get this into my project right away!"

Rust ducked back into what used to be the dismantling room. Over the grinding sounds of rapid power-tool use, his father grumbled, "Rust Roader, when are you going to actually _show_ me that project of yours? You've been shoving every broken weapon that's come through here into that whatever-it-is for two months, and I never see them again! Not that I particularly care for broken weapons I can't repair, but-"

"Ta-dah!" Rust interrupted the familiar grumbling by flipping through the door and landing on the intake desk. "I just finished it! How's it look, Dad?" Rust brandished the colossal weapon in a generically cool warrior pose.

"It looks like a huge hunk of red-painted metal that a moron civilian might possibly confuse for a sword. You're telling me you melted down all that scrap to make _that?_ " The disapproval might have deflated Rust's enthusiasm, but this was exactly the reaction he was going for.

"'Melted down?' Well, how about..." Rust pushed one of ten buttons on the handle, most of which were hidden under his fingers. In response, the blade unfolded into a plethora of weapons on robotic joints, from classic rifles and swords, to daggers and throwing knives, more exotic sickles, a couple axes, a giant flail, and one enormous cannon. All the weapons were polished to perfection. "...How about now? This is why I call my secret weapon 'Eversword!' I can select which weapon comes out, or have them all out at once like this. Don't worry, my Semblance can handle the weight, no problem!"

The shop owner was suitably impressed. "Well, son, it looks like you finally beat me at my job. I recognize all of these weapons, and I couldn't figure out how to fix even one of them! ...You did fix them, right?"

"Well, of course I did. Why waste a slot on a weapon that doesn't shoot? I figure I'll have to swap them out soon, though. These quick fixes won't hold forever." Rust shrugged in feigned apathy.

The proprietor beamed at his son, practically jumping up and down. "It's amazing that you got them to work at all! You know, with skills like yours, I could finally retire! What do you say to taking over the main shop?"

Rust hesitated. "...Sorry, Dad, but I'm going to have to decline." As the old man's expression drooped, the boy added, "I've spent the last two months working on this as a hobby. After a while, I thought about it, and there's no reason to build this awesome weapon if I never use it. I want to learn to fight from now on. I've taken Eversword for test runs in the woods, and I'm pretty good with it. Maybe I could be a Huntsman one day!"

There was a long silence, during which Rust's dramatic expression began to falter. Finally, his father spoke up. "Well, if that's your dream, who am I to stop you? I'm not sure how you'd go about getting trained, though. Maybe you should ask around. Better for you to have formal training than to go running off to the woods and get eaten by Grimm. Still, I'm worried about your Semblance. The last time I saw you try to lift something that heavy, your arms started bleeding the instant you put it down. The mess got into everything, even the-"

Rust cut off that sentence before he could mention anything embarrassing. "I've been training my Semblance, too! I wouldn't have gone out and slain random Beowolves if I couldn't safely lift my weapon. I'm not dumb. But... Thanks, Dad. I'll make you proud!" Rust slung his multitool over his back, where it stuck to a specially-designed pad on his ammo belt. The red blade neatly covered the "Rust in Peace" logo on the back of his brown jacket. The red-haired boy dashed off to new adventures, wiping some grease from his hands onto his blue jeans as he ran.

 **RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR**

"Hey, guys! I got accepted to Skylight!" A booming voice carried to Rust's ears from a dirty side alley. One didn't often see dirty alleyways in Atlas, given that the city was cleaned by robots, so this merited at least some curiosity.

As Rust drew closer to the source of the commotion, another voice responded to the first in a nasal tone. "The Huntsman Academy? Cool! I always knew you could do it, boss!" Rust walked around the corner and came upon a large, muscular guy in a black T-shirt who had apparently shaved off all the hair on his scalp, boasting to a pair of scrawny shorter boys. He had a chainsaw in a holster on his back.

Rust spoke up, "What's this Skylight place? Can I go there to work towards being a Huntsman?"

One of the scrawny boys exclaimed, "How do you not know what Skylight is?" Then he wheezed like a lifelong smoker.

The other squeaked, "Yeah! It's only the most famous institution in all of Atlas! Only the toughest of the tough get to train there!"

"Yeah, like me!" The big guy finished. "So you want to be a Huntsman, huh, kid? Get in line. I bet a scrawny kid like you couldn't even swing that huge lump of metal on your back. I mean, if you had guns like these," he posed by flexing a bicep, "then maybe you could pull it off. Here, let me show you how it's done. Hand over the sword."

Rust grinned in spite of the implied threats. "Sure, give me a sec." He easily drew Eversword into his fighting stance, holding it in both hands at his side with the tip of the blade pointed upward. This already shocked the larger boy, who fumbled with his case to free his chainsaw, but then Rust made it even better by pressing a hidden button. The tip of Eversword swung open like a lid, and a silver blade sprang out, extending the already impressive reach of the multitool another foot. The chainsaw fell out of the larger boy's slackened grip and landed on his foot. "There. That's the sword part. Still think you could do better?" Rust taunted.

"Ow ow ow ow ow!" Was all the thug said. Apparently he'd been overcharged for those steel-toed leather boots. After a few more hops, the thug stopped clutching his leg and snatched up the chainsaw. "Okay, new bet. You have some neat surprises in that sword, but you still can't swing it! I bet I can saw your head off before you can hit me! Winner gets whatever's left of the loser!" Yanking a cord, the thug caused his chainsaw to loudly roar to life.

"Are you seriously trying to mug me? What an _amazing_ candidate to be a Huntsman!" Rust wasn't really concerned. His own Aura was clearly stronger than the thug's, and that chainsaw didn't have any guns on it. This offended Rust's sensibilities as a weaponsmith, so he switched Eversword's configuration again. This time, the blade split in two halves like a hot dog bun, revealing the barrel of the cannon inside. "I'll take that bet."

The thug stumbled mid-rush. "Wait wait, maybe we can talk this-"

*BOOM!* The ammo was just an iron ball the size of an orange, since Rust hadn't loaded any Dust ammo yet. It was still enough to knock the thug back a few feet, then keep going after passing right through the guy's abdomen. Now Rust was the one shocked. "Oops! I didn't mean to rip a hole in you! I guess this thing shoots harder than I thought, but didn't you put up your Aura?"

"*Gasp* My...what?"

"No time to explain, gotta dial for an ambulance!" Rust whipped out his scroll and started dialing, but he was cut off by a much more confident voice from behind him.

"Don't bother. I've already informed the proper authorities." It was a robot proxy, speaking with the voice of General Ironwood himself while the General was tied up with official business elsewhere. "Once this boy has been treated, he will answer to the Atlesian court system for the crimes of attempted assault...and forgery of official transcripts."

"General Ironwood, sir! Thank you, sir!" There were rules for this situation that got pressed into kids' heads in primary school. No showing disrespect to military officials or their robot proxies, because General Ironwood might as well be right there with a hotline to the entire military, so it would usually be best to err on the side of caution.

"There's need to be so formal." The robot waved off Rust's attempted salute. "At ease, Rust Roader. I actually sent this robot out as a talent scout for the last few admission slots at Skylight. Also, now that this... _boy_ is disqualified, his slot is open to be reassigned. That _was_ the bet he proposed, wasn't it? 'Winner gets whatever's left of the loser.' And I heard everything, because I was already scouting you when you proved yourself so obviously superior to him. So, now it's time to be formal. Rust Roader, would you like to attend Skylight Academy, and train to become a Huntsman?"

"Would I? Uh, I mean... Sir, yes sir!" Rust did another hasty salute.

"Then you're good to go. The airship leaves from Gate 3 of the main port tomorrow morning at 0700 hours; be packed and ready to go."

"Thank you, sir!"

"One last thing," Ironwood chuckled over the robot's speaker. "Huntsmen and Huntresses aren't subject to the same military protocols as the Atlesian army, especially since we are continuing to phase out human involvement in favor of robot soldiers. So you can stop saluting now."

"Really? Aw man, now I feel stupid."

"Don't worry. I expect great things from you in the coming days. In fact, I... Hold on, someone's knocking at my door... What on Remnant happened out here?!" There was an audible click as Ironwood hung up, and the robot jerked its arms as its rudimentary AI took over.

"MOVE ALONG, CIV-STUDENT. THIS UNIT MUST RETURN TO BASE."

"Sure thing," Rust called as he dashed out of the alley, momentarily forgetting that the robot couldn't respond to conversation in his excitement to get packed. The day would have to try pretty hard to get even better!

 **RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR**

 _Closing A/N's: The disturbance in Ironwood's office is part of another intro. I'm going to be making a LOT of assumptions for this slightly AU setting._

 _Safe Assumption 1: Atlas' Huntsman's Academy is called Skylight in this AU. Given that the show focuses entirely on Vale, there's a lot we don't know about the other three kingdoms/cities, aside from their names and the name of the Haven Academy in Mistrel._

 _Foolish Assumption 2: General Ironwood isn't one of the bad guys. My current theory is that he's a well-intentioned extremist, and he's less extreme than he could be. He's sending in the robots to purge soulless monsters, not taking over the world to eliminate discrimination or anything equally ridiculous._

 _Likely Assumption 3: General Ironwood doesn't have an analogue to Glynda Goodwitch. Instead, he takes over robots to work remotely, or assigns a random subordinate to do so. There are real-life robots that pretty much do this, though of course they aren't as physically effective or coordinated. The concept is called "telepresence."_

 _Disproven Assumption 4: RWBY Volume 3 won't release in the USA for at least a few months. If I turn out to be horribly wrong about everything I write, I can point to this being an AU that I started writing after watching only up to Volume 2._

 _Probably Not an Assumption 5: Cinder Fall has a big master plan. Roman Torchwick was lying through his cigar-stained teeth when he said he was the mastermind of their operation. Or maybe he's the mastermind of a_ separate _operation behind their backs... Either way, right now Cinder's calling the shots._

 _More assumptions will have to be made as they come up and will mostly pertain to other original characters._

 _Legally Pointless Disclaimer: I, the fanfiction author under the pen-name "mysteriousguy898", have no connection or affiliation with the concepts, characters, or scenarios portrayed in RWBY. Those concepts belong to Monty Oum (R.I.P. Monty Oum; the Internet has lost one of its best) and the Rooster Teeth group. The OCs portrayed in this story were designed by me with some aid from my younger brother. Inspirations for Rust Roader in particular came from_ Final Fantasy _and_ Kingdom Hearts _for his appearance, and_ Ar Tonelico 3: Knell of Ar Ciel _for his weapon._ _All rights to those concepts, insomuch as they apply to this writing, belong to their respective owners. This work is not made for profit, and should not be re-posted on any site unless you do all of the following: really like it, ask me first, and re-post this Legally Pointless Disclaimer._

 _Please support Rooster Teeth, perhaps by subscribing on YouTube if you can't/won't give them money!_


	2. O-One Place They'll Never Look

**O- One Place They'd Never Look**

 _Summary: The secret bioweapon project that was declared a failure generations ago has just finished incubating. And no one is left alive who remembers who, and what, he is._

 _Author's Notes: This chapter is written by FierceDeityMask, not me. All credit for the character goes to him._

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

The woods were dark, and there was something in the air. Not really a scent, more of a feeling. It was fear. That primal sense that something bigger and nastier than you can handle is looking for you. The woods were permeated with fear. Soulless eyes blinked once, twice, and then spun around on a humanoid frame toward the source of that deliciously appetizing fear. Only humans and Faunus feared like that, it was too sentient to be an animal. And people were only that fearful when they knew they were defenseless. Now it was time to stalk, time to pounce time to ki-

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Obsidian awoke with a startled cry, which resulted in grumbling from the other inhabitants of the homeless shelter. A gruff "Shut up, kid!" told the now fully awakened young man that his bunkmate, the intriguingly titled "Commander Mustard", was still trying to sleep, so Obsidian silently extricated himself from the low quality thread-bare sheets and left the complex. No one heard him leave.

The bleached white Atlesian streetlights illuminated the road outside the homeless shelter, but did nothing to brighten Obsidian's blackened mind. Those dreams (Were they dreams?) had been getting more and more vivid, and the time he spent awake was getting more and more stressful. He couldn't go on this way, sleeping made it to easy to brood, and brooding didn't do nice things to the fragmented soul that was all he had to hold on to. He needed somewhere where he wouldn't be expected to do human things like eat and sleep. He couldn't sleep, not ever. Another of those dreams and he might not wake up before he killed someone. (If he killed someone in a dream would that blacken his soul as though he were awake?) But where could he pass as human without being expected to act human? He slowly began walking down the street while pondering this dilemma. If only he could come up with a plan... In his mind he tried to imagine the problem he faced as a combat scenario. With sleep being the enemy and the objective being to find cover. Surprisingly enough, this worked, something about the way he thought made planning easy, so long as it was in the context of battle schemes. (It was really weird to consider that he didn't fully understand his own thought processes.) The solution his mind came to was to find a location where strange behavior was more likely to be overlooked. A place filled with as many eccentricities and idiosyncrasies as individual people. The obvious answer was Skylight, Atlas's Hunter Academy. Now how to enroll...?

Despite being lost in though, Obsidian was instantly aware that two rather large humans were approaching from a side alley. Rather than alert them to the fact that he was alerted, Obsidian kept his head down, his face concealed by his Shroud Hood, the simple black and gray hoodie that obscured his features. The figure from the alley continued to approach in a fashion that was seemingly intended to be stealthy, but was in fact about as subtle as an earthquake arguing with a tornado. Clearly neither of these two thugs was the brains of the operations. Obsidian's superior hearing picked up one of them whispering, "Are we sneaking?" And the other replying "How would I know, Boss isn't here to check anymore!" Clearly, these two were lackeys of some presently-absent ringleader. Obsidian decided that further interaction was as pointless as it was foolish, so he chose to cut the little exchange off early.

"That's close enough." He said softly, but loud enough to be heard.

Th two thugs jumped a little before their small brains decided that the best choice was to charge their quarry. With a contemptuous sigh, and a flick of his hand, Obsidian sprung the trap circle he had placed upon speaking, which thanks to his constant motion was now behind him, and directly beneath the thugs. Channeling some of his unstable soul into his Jammer field, he shut down all motor control for the would-be muggers.

"Nice try, but next time, mug someone who isn't dangerous, not to mention broke and homeless." Obsidian left without another word. No time to waste on riffraff, the entrance exams for Skylight were already over so if he wanted to enroll, he would have to start preparing for the shuttle tomorrow. He COULD sneak his way on (It would be fun to see how long he could avoid detection), but that wasn't workable long-term, and seeing as how one of the robots would be hosting Ironwood, he could also just impress the man there, with "talents" like Obsidian's, Skylight would have to accept him. After all, who better to Hunt the Grimm than an inside man? This was the one place they'd never look for a hybrid. A wolf in shepherds clothing, if he could only keep his claws sheathed... And who could say? Maybe he might find something there that lit his soul instead of dimming it.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 _Author's Notes: Let's all give my brother a big hand for his excellent writing! As for Obsidian's abilities, et cetera, we've talked back and forth, but I'll file what I know under "Assumptions."_

 _Assumption 1: Obsidian's Semblance is not "Jammer," it's "Psychoshift." He allows his Grimm side to take over and essentially becomes a Grimm of the highest caliber. This makes his combat style far more aggressive, and increases the effect of the Aura-dampening field he projects (the Jammer, or "Pacifier" for its effect on Grimm that makes them non-aggressive). His irises turn red and the whites of his eyes turn black (Look at Master Albert from Mega Man ZX Advent for a good idea of how creepy it looks) while under the effect, and he finds it difficult to cancel. He refers to the persona he displays during Psychoshift as a different person, who he calls "Oblivion."_

 _Assumption 2: Obsidian was converted in a secret project under the Atlas military, back before they turned to robots. In fact, they originally did all sorts of crazy experiments funded by the Schnee Dust Company and their huge supply of magic rocks, until Obsidian blew up the lab and convinced them to look for a force that was easier to control. He spent more than eighty years in a sort of hibernation while his Soul fully developed, and by now the Council has forgotten all about him. Which is good for not-getting-shot purposes._

 _Assumption 3: Obsidian has a corrupted Soul, and it's finite. His Aura does not regenerate over time like it would for other people. If he runs out completely (and he's getting close at this point), he'll revert entirely to being just another (very powerful) creature of Grimm. He'll stick with Team ROAD because peaceful interaction with people restores his Soul, helping him maintain his identity. He just didn't know it because most people in the world of Remnant are jerks to those who are "different."_

 _Assumption 4: Obsidian carries two whip-swords (I'll have to ask my brother if he means a sword on the end of a whip, like Blake's Gambol Shroud, or something more like the Ivy Blade from Soulcalibur), but he never uses them unless Oblivion is in control. While using the swords, he becomes very aggressive and fast, entangling his foes with brute force as easily as he leads them onto traps normally. He never attacks Grimm while Oblivion is in control, but he won't go all out on Team ROAD, either, because Obsidian is constantly fighting to retake control of the body. FierceDeityMask suggests it still won't be easy to get him back to "normal," though. I'll have to discuss with him the relative merits of "I know you're in there!" versus knocking Oblivion unconscious directly. Ash won't begrudge his partner Obsidian for his burden, since Ash already has demonic role models. They'll become fast friends (by Obsidian's standards), and Obsidian will remain himself... As long as things go according to plan. Bwa ha ha ha!_

 _"Oblivion" was originally me mistyping "Obsidian" in an email to my brother, and he said, "Great typo, I think I'll keep it."_

 _I'll say it again, Obsidian is FierceDeityMask's OC, not mine. He gets the final word on any and all specifics. If you PM me with a question, I'll have to PM him for an answer, but do ask questions anyway, I love talking to all of you! Also, check out my FierceDeityMask's poetry! It's not often I see good poetry that actually rhymes on this site, and he's got more than ten poems posted on such diverse video game topics as The Legend of Zelda, The Elder Scrolls, Borderlands, and Kingdom Hearts!_


	3. A-Artificial Friends

**Team ROAD Intros**

 **A-Artificial Friends**

 _Summary: Ash Fall had always relied on his big sister, Cinder, to deal with the petty bullies and other problems in his life. Now, though, she ran off without a word, potentially endangering more than just Ash, who wasn't strong enough to bring her back himself. Solution? Build some allies!_

 _Author's Notes: This is the character with the most potential to totally derail this AU from canon, because I have to make up stuff about not just Cinder Fall's relation to him, but why she'd leave for Vale, as well as where her freaky powers come from. I highly doubt simple Dust could make those runes from the first episode, and the other characters seem fairly sure those flame attacks aren't her Semblance. Well, here we go._

 **AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

"Hey, Gramps!" _Here we go again_.Ash Fall turned toward the shouting boy, regarding him with his black eyes from behind his large glasses. "Ain't you a little young to have gray hair?"

Ash ran a hand through his short, messy mop of hair. "Are you aware that you have _purple_ hair? What makes gray so unusual?" Despite his words, he backed up a few steps, because the larger boy had a metal club and was looking for an excuse to use it.

"Shut up! Are you saying I'm stupid?!" Excuse in hand, the boy charged forward. The club came down on Ash's head.

"No, but...ugh... I suppose that's one way to interpret it... Ow..." Ash tried to pick himself up off the ground, but the club smacked him down again.

"Well, now you're gonna pay!" *Wham!* It was like this every time. At least once a week. Big Sis Cinder always told Ash that he needed to toughen up so the bullies would back off. Speaking of Cinder, where was she? Normally she'd be swooping in with a blast of fire, and the bullies would run away. It never took this long...

*Wham!* "Now... I get... What she meant..." Frantically, Ash reached out with his Semblance. He contacted his three floating drones and sent them to get help. Alpha and Beta rushed off to locate some police or sentry robots, but Mordac rushed forward to try and defend Ash directly. The round, green drone flew directly into the path of the club, and was smashed aside. "No! Mordac! Why... Why would you try that if you're not strong enough?"

"Stop talking to your stupid toys, Gramps!" A metal boot collided with Ash's head, and he fell into blissful unconsciousness.

 **AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

Some time later, Ash woke up. The sun was already going down, and the two-thirds shattered moon was rising over the town walls. Ash pushed himself to his knees despite a pounding headache, and saw what became of Mordac. The drone's chassis had a huge dent in it, and its hover pads had been damaged by the collision with the wall, but it looked like it could be fixed. It was still trying to hover toward Ash with the last dregs of its reserve power. "Don't worry, I'm fine now. Sleep mode; I'll get you fixed up." Ash said and sent simultaneously. The drone obeyed the telepathic command and fell silent. Ash scooped it up into his arms, but frowned deeper when he remembered that Alpha and Beta had gone to find the authorities. Where were they?

He extended his reach to try and ping them, and got back damage reports not far from where they'd started. The bully must have had friends to catch them before they could get help. Ash located them and placed the damaged drones in his backpack before trudging home. Today couldn't get much worse.

When Ash arrived at the Fall household, one of the few residential buildings in Atlas that was a house for a single family rather than a huge apartment, he expected his mother to be worried sick. So it wasn't a surprise when the door flew open the instant he rang the doorbell. What did surprise him was that his mother yelled, "Cinder Fall, you have a lot of nerve trying to slink back in here after-" At this point, the older lady realized that she was yelling at the wrong person. "Ash? Where have you been?"

Ash adjusted his cracked glasses. "I was caught by a bully with a club. Can I come in? I need to fix my drones."

"Of course. Have you seen your sister, by the way?" Mrs. Fall mentioned in a conversational tone, as though she hadn't been yelling bloody murder over something Cinder did while Ash was gone.

"No. I thought it was strange that she didn't show up. I guess she can't be there every time, huh? I've got to get stronger by myself, so I can handle these things without her."

"You may have to hurry up on that," Mrs. Fall muttered. Her golden eyes flashed as she got angry again. "Cinder stole _IT_ from the cellar, and ran off into the darkness. I don't think she's coming back. I _hope_ she doesn't come back, because if she does, she'll have to be punished according to the ancient family traditions."

"What's ' _IT?_ '" Ash wondered. The children had always been forbidden to go into the cellar, on pain of the "traditional punishment." Ash had been punished for some pretty severe transgressions ranging from not making his bed to rigging explosives in the stew pot, and he'd always been told that the punishment for those crimes was only some small fraction of what the "traditional punishment" called for. Ash might have gotten morbidly curious and tried to invoke the traditional punishment, but spending five minutes with his hand dipped in scalding water (after the stew bomb incident) was painful enough to convince him it wasn't worth it to do worse. A family of demons could come up with some very creative ways to inflict pain, after all.

That was the big Fall family secret, and revealing it was the other crime for which one could receive the traditional punishment. Some time ago, way back before the current world order, the first man of the Fall family had met a demoness. They'd fallen in love, and ever since, their descendants had been split roughly fifty-fifty. On their seventh birthday, each child would either manifest their demonic aspect or remain human their whole lives. Cinder had become a demon, with glowing golden eyes, power over fire, and some sort of demonic weapons she'd never shown to Ash, while Ash had remained human. Ash didn't consider it a major issue one way or the other, since of the two Fall children in this generation, he'd gotten the lions share in technical aptitude and could build whatever he needed. The family as a whole, however, wanted the secret kept, because the original demons were the predecessors to the creatures of Grimm. Humanity would probably mount a crusade if word got out, which convinced any family member who thought they could handle the "traditional punishment" to keep their lips sealed regardless.

Mrs. Fall hesitated. "...It's better that you don't know what _IT_ is. Suffice it to say that _IT_ was supposed to stay in the cellar, and is the reason why we punish trespassers so harshly."

That...told Ash absolutely nothing. "Well, is there anywhere she might go after taking _IT_?"

"I told you, she ran off into the darkness. There's no way to follow her tracks there. Don't go looking too hard for answers; you won't like what you find." Mrs. Fall ruffled Ash's hair and sauntered off towards the study.

"Even so, I want to know. Why would she turn on the family like this? Where did she go?" No one answered. Ash sighed and climbed the stairs to his room to fix his drones.

As he set out all the necessary parts, Ash reflected on what he might need to do now that Cinder wasn't here to protect him anymore. He wasn't as strong as her. He doubted anyone could be as strong as Cinder by themselves. As he moved to tighten a screw, he stumbled on the answer. Of course! He was Ash Fall, programming and robotics extraordinaire! If he couldn't be as strong as Cinder on his own, all he had to do was build himself some allies! "Okay, guys. Time for an upgrade!" Ash reopened Alpha's chassis and got to work.

 **AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

 _One week later..._

"Hey, Gramps!" Ash turned around to face the usual bully. Was this the same guy? No matter; it was time to send a message.

He glared at the purple-haired bully. "Leave me alone, or face the consequences."

"Oh yeah? What could you do about it?"

Ash shrugged, sending a silent command to Beta. "Oh, I won't do anything."

"Then here I come! Time for your weekly beating, Gramps!" The bully charged in, his path as predictable as ever. He almost fell over when a gunshot rang out from somewhere behind Ash, and only stayed standing because his feet froze to the ground. "What the...?"

"I said _I_ wouldn't do anything. That's what Beta's for." The blue drone floated into view from behind Ash's head, the glowing white lights that served as its "eyes" for display purposes (obviously, the drone really used the camera between them to see) glowing in a way the bully might describe as menacing if he had a large enough vocabulary. The drone was still the same round ball of metal with stubby fins that the "boys" had smashed last week, but now it had a cannon on top. As he watched, the barrel folded up and retracted into a hatch, returning the drone to its deceptively unarmed appearance.

A red drone came around a shadowed corner, and Ash chuckled in its direction. "Of course I wasn't going to leave you out, Alpha! Go ahead and show him what we can do now!" A weapon barrel popped out of the red drone, immediately spewing baseball-sized blasts of flame. The bully was still frozen to the spot and unable to dodge, so he suffered some light burns on his arms and legs. The heat also melted the ice that pinned him down.

Operating on primitive, animal behavior, the bully immediately fled from these unexpected displays of strength. Ash motioned to his other side while he stared at the retreating spikes of purple hair. "Mordac, if you would." A green drone zipped in from its perch on a nearby streetlight and launched a thick beam of green light. The tractor beam struck the bully's leather vest and yanked him back to Ash's feet. "Leaving so soon? I still have exactly fifty-seven attacks to inflict on you before we're even, and those are just the one for which I was conscious."

"No, please? I'll do whatever you want!" The bully started groveling, and while it was an amusing sight to see, Ash also noticed his hand creeping towards the club that had fallen nearby. A mental command and another tractor beam brought the club into Ash's hand, and he tossed it behind him.

"Then the first thing I want is for you to _hold still_. Alpha, flamethrower mode. Ten seconds ought to do it."

After ten seconds of burning, the bully didn't get back up. "Let that be a lesson to you. Pass it on." Ash turned around to walk away, but held still when the bully coughed up enough soot to speak again.

"How... How did a nerd like you get so strong?"

Ash smirked for a second, then replied as he walked away. "That's why you don't mess with nerds. We can be very creative." After knocking the bully out with a chunk of solid ice, Ash's drones followed him as he vanished down the road.

 **AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

 _That night at dinner..._

"It worked, Mother! You should have seen the look on that jerk's face when Beta froze his foot to the floor!" Ash rubbed the drone in question on the head and ate another forkful of peas. Beta gave a pair of happy beeps.

"Oh, Ash, that's wonderful! I hope you've gotten any leftover vigilantism out of your system. How many wounds did you inflict in all? I want every detail." Mrs. Fall had... _interesting_ views on acceptable conduct, particularly in the areas of when it was appropriate to violently attack one's peers and how much damage was too much. Essentially, the limit was "Whatever you can get away with," at least when dealing with non-family members. Her eyes gleamed golden as she leaned toward her precious son and source of graphic descriptions of violence.

"Eh, I let him off easy. I could have kept him under the flamethrower for the full fifty-seven seconds, but ten was enough to burn the 'Shut Up, Noob!' message on his jacket until it just said 'S-ob!' There was this big red mark on his back, but I think I accidentally cauterized it, because he didn't bleed as much as I hoped he would. Then I told him off and had Beta knock him unconscious. Don't worry, I won't collect any debts or interest if I see him again." That wasn't the extent of Ash's planned vigilantism, though. Just this once, he had to keep a secret from Mother, because he fully intended to find out what Cinder was planning.

"That's good. If this happens again, be sure to bring back some bits! It's been far too long since I could hang my kids' accomplishments over the mantle!" The last time had been when Cinder "got distracted" and blasted a drunk guy who tried to pick her up. She launched him through the ceiling of the bar so hard that he left his feet behind, and his shoes were on display next to an antique boat-in-a-bottle. Ash had his own accomplishments, but his achievements were usually report cards and debate club trophies that got hung up on the fridge or bookshelf instead.

"I'll be sure to make you proud, Mother." The raid on the Cross Continental Transmit tower would be tomorrow, so Ash retreated to fine-tune the plan and rest up.

 **AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

 _Later..._

"I hope you realize the kind of danger you could have visited on the entire kingdom!" General Ironwood himself paced back and forth in front of Ash in the dimly-lit interrogation room.

"I'm aware. If I'd left the security programs disabled, there would be chaos all throughout Remnant, not just in Atlas. I was looking through the information from other kingdoms; I know what I was looking for wouldn't be here," Ash grumbled.

"And what _were_ you looking for? Weapons schematics? Conspiracies?"

"Nothing of the sort. A family member of mine vanished a while back, but there wasn't anything in the records to indicate where they went."

"You didn't think to _ask_ for the records?!"

"I knew it wouldn't be in any 'official' records, much less what little I could get authorization to check. It turns out there was nothing in the 'unofficial' records either. I sort of glossed over most of the Top Secret plans; not important. I am curious about this 'Penny' project, though. Who's that?"

"I'm not going to hand top secret plans to a known cyber-criminal! Your audacity is astounding!"

"I was just curious because it was the only plan with no numbers. I filtered out all the numbers from my search so I wouldn't get bogged down in robot blueprints, but then 'Penny' was the only result."

"I'm still not telling you anything. Once the Council hears about this, you'll be serving jail time for months!"

"Like I said; just curious. To prove my good faith, do you want to know how I did it?"

"Hm? If you're willing to answer, then yes, I would like to know how you waltzed past all the firewalls and encryptions in the Cross Continental Transmit system to steal top secret data from four kingdoms."

"It was my Semblance. I can mentally link to any computer system, AI, or other machine that uses electronics. Then I can navigate the data to find what I need to know and send commands. I use it to control Alpha, Beta, and Mordac. Speaking of them, will I get them back after I've served my time? They were originally my attempt to build some friends, and they're still pretty much the closest approximation I've got, even if they're not quite sentient."

Ironwood ignored the part about the drones, which were shut down and locked in a locker. "So, you're some kind of tele-hacker? Is there any defense against it?"

"I can't be blocked by software. Computers don't talk back, so they can't refuse my commands. I have a fairly short maximum range between myself and the first terminal in a network, though, which begs the question: why did you put top secret data on computers that were networked to every nation? It's only a matter of time before some hacker who actually wants to break things gets in." Ash practically scolded. "That's a cool name for my Semblance, though. 'Telehacker!' I hadn't gotten around to naming it yet."

Ironwood was thankful that he wasn't facing the boy. His whole image would be ruined if he was caught _blushing_ because he was embarrassed that this kid was telling him off over his security policy. "...Thank you for telling me about that potential vulnerability. Would you like a government job on the network security team?"

Ash's impression of bored confidence crashed. "...What? Is that sarcasm? I'm not sure how to tell."

"I'm entirely serious." General Ironwood turned around. "I had one job: to maintain the security of the kingdom of Atlas, in both military and technical battles. I can't afford to let someone better than me not be on my team, because if I fail at my one job, the entire kingdom will burn to the ground. So I'm offering you a chance to get paid to fix our security."

"Um... The way I navigate systems with my Telehacker ability doesn't tell me anything about their security programs. I basically ask the system directly, and it responds. It's like talking to a person. The best advice I have for you is to get sensitive information off the network altogether, because while you're on a network with unknown people, there's no such thing as perfect security, not even against normal hackers."

"Well, that's too bad. Thank you for your help." Ironwood turned around to call in the police to escort Ash to a temporary holding cell.

"If I may, though, there's something I really want to do." Ash spoke up.

The general stopped. "What might that be?"

"I want to apply to Skylight. I need to get stronger, so I can stand up to the person I was looking for and bring her home. If I can get stronger and protect the kingdom from the creatures of Grimm at the same time, it's a bonus."

"That's intriguing, but don't think you're suited to the battlefield."

"I have a lot of surprises. I built those drones and their weapons myself, after all, and strong Aura runs in the family. Letting my drones handle offense allowed me to specialize in toughening my defense. You can ask the troops how many rounds it took to knock me out. I can handle whatever Skylight can throw at me."

 _Well, there are still openings for two students to attend this semester. I need full teams, after all._ Still, Ironwood tried to sound ambiguous in his reply. "I'll get a report. Depending on what I find, perhaps you'll get your chance to prove it. You'll be held in a temporary cell in the meantime, with full-time guard to make sure you don't just tele-hack your way out."

"That's better than I hoped, sir." Ash allowed the guards to restrain him and lead him out of the room.

 **AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

 _Author's Notes and Assumptions: The whole situation with the Fall family is a huge mess of assumptions, such as Cinder being a demon, the demons being the predecessors to humanity from the "forgotten past" mentioned in Episode 1 of RWBY, and the exact limits of what a Semblance can or cannot do. Of course, now I know that RWBY Volume 3 will be out this month, so my headcanon is about to spiral down the drain. I may still use this AU for something, though._

 _In serious combat, there are a few tricks the drones could use that Ash didn't show off in this intro. They connect together, for example, forming a shield to block attacks or helping Ash fly with their combined hovering power. Alpha is the red one that mostly uses fire, Beta is the blue one that manipulates ice, and Mordac is the green one with the tractor beams and the name that trips people up during introductions. They're all basically the same roughly ovoid shape, with stubby triangular fins on the sides and top (in front of the hatch for hidden weapons)._

 _If I write later scenes, like when Team ROAD gets officially formed in the usual initiation trial, the incident Ash pulled at the Cross Continental Transmit tower won't be described again. At least not this directly. It'll be like Junior's club from the Yellow Trailer._


	4. D-Don't Think Too Hard

**D-Don't Think Too Hard**

 _Summary: The world around Dandy Lionel is as mysterious to her as the inside of her head is to everyone else. Waking from a daydream to find she was accepted for Huntress training at the prestigious academy of Skylight was only the third-weirdest experience she had this week._

 _A/N: These are the three OCs I can write intros for. As for Obsidian, the O in ROAD, FierceDeityMask is his sole creator. If he comes up with an intro for his darker and edgier OC, I'll favorite it so any readers can find it on my profile._

 _If I make an overarching story with Team ROAD as the main characters, I'll switch the capital letter string I use as my scene breaks in my current stories (see below) to reflect the point of view of the next scene._

 **DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD**

Dandy Lionel was alone in a crowd, as usual. Part of it was her heritage as a bear Faunus. She had round, brown ears sticking up out of her half white, half yellow hair, and she'd never found a way to comfortably conceal them without making the deception obvious. The ears broke the illusion created by her white jacket, green pants, and yellow ponytail, which made her look a little like the puffy weed that was her namesake when viewed at a distance without glasses.

The other part of her strangeness, the part that prevented the people of Atlas from jeering and throwing things at her as they did to most other Faunus, was also why she couldn't really care about the crowd in the first place. As she wandered down a busy road on a meandering path that somehow avoided any oncoming cars, people would take one look at her glazed, brown eyes and get the sense that the girl "wasn't all there," creating a sense of uneasiness that kept all but the most bigoted offenders away. Those that remained soon left in disappointment when she didn't react "appropriately" to the abuse.

Simply put, Dandy frequently fell out of touch with reality, paying attention to something in her thoughts instead. She referred to it as "daydreaming," and she continued to move and act in surprisingly complex ways while doing so. She often "woke up" to find herself in a completely unfamiliar location, and she'd gotten used to it after about five years of constant daydreaming.

Today saw her _climbing a mountain_ without being aware of it, which led her to Skylight Academy's campus. There were guards, of course. The perimeter of the campus was guarded by human soldiers, since robots might not be able to distinguish an incoming airship as being either an enemy fighter or a tourist airbus.

Once the guards caught sight of Dandy, they left their posts to interrogate her. "Hey, little girl. What are you doing on Skylight campus?" No reply, but Dandy frowned a bit. "Hey, we're talking to you!" A small tilt of Dandy's head was the only answer.

"Hey," said the other guard. "She's a Faunus. Maybe she just has an animal's brain as well."

There was giggling after the racist "humor," but it didn't come from the first guard. Dandy bent over almost double, laughing uncontrollably. The guards were understandably confused at this reaction.

"Is she all right in the head? Even the dumbest Faunus I've ever heard of would get riled up over that, not laugh with me." The guard began to get suspicious. Perhaps the girl was more dangerous than her simple appearance let on, so she was laughing off the threat?

"Well, if she's nuts, we have to either get her off campus or restrain her for further investigation," the first guard paraphrased from his bookmark in the Employee Handbook (which was actually titled _The Employee Handbook for Generic Guards_ ). "Load your stun ammo." He swapped a cartridge of red Dust for diluted yellow and took aim at the girl, who hadn't moved from the spot where they'd found her yet. "Unidentified Faunus! If you can understand me, stand down."

Dandy abruptly stopped giggling and stared straight ahead in open-mouthed horror. "Yeah, the gun is scary, isn't it? Now come quietly and-" Dandy broke into a run... Directly toward the guards, mouth wide open in a silent scream. To his credit, the guard instantly snapped off a stunning shot at the first sudden move, but the bullet never struck the girl, despite being aimed right at her chest. Instead, the air in front of Dandy wavered and fizzled, and the bullet disappeared into the distortion. A split second later, an identical anomaly formed behind her back (while she was still running forward), and the same bullet flew straight out, leaving Dandy unharmed as it streaked into the distance. "What kind of freaky Semblance is that?!"

Rather than getting an answer, the guard found himself pushed aside by a sudden, hurricane-force gust of wind. As he tumbled end over end, he caught a glimpse of the girl's weapon: a folding fan made of blades, with holes at varying distances up each sharp fold that probably shot Dust rounds. Everything doubled as a gun in the world of Remnant, after all. Dandy waved a second identical fan as she continued running like the end of the world was behind her, scattering a group of reinforcements that responded to the automatic alarm from the first shot being fired.

Her mad dash continued straight to the gates, unhindered by the scores of guards in standard issue gear that lined her path and tried to bar her way. All the contenders were blown into walls by wind blasts, or knocked unconscious by the (currently) non-lethal, shadow-elemental Dust rounds that fired in a scattered pattern from her fans when she spun them around her hands. Robots, guns, and soldiers lay in heaps behind her, with any who managed to fire a return shot being forced to miss thanks to her phasing Semblance. She ended up on an elevator headed to the top floor of the executive wing. At this point, she suddenly stopped silently screaming in favor of whistling a cheerful tune, which unnerved a fellow passenger getting off on a closer floor, but at least the whistling didn't smash them into the wall.

When the elevator _dinged_ to announce it's arrival at the top floor, Dandy meandered down the impressive corridor to the large office door at the end. A couple more decorated guards stood on either side of the door, supposedly the last line of defense for General Ironwood's office. (In reality, if the school weren't currently on break after the end of the last semester, an intruder would have to contend with dozens of potential Huntsmen and Huntresses before getting anywhere close to here. The timing of this security fiasco couldn't have been worse... Or better, from certain points of view.)

The honor guards drew actual beam swords (the latest Atlesian advancement in futuristic technology for stabbing and burning things at the same time), causing the hilts to ignite in two-foot lines of yellow and red respectively, to indicate the type of Dust crystal powering each blade. They didn't bother with negotiations, since no unscheduled visitors ever came up here with friendly intentions. Moving as a synchronized unit, they brought their blades down on Dandy's head, only to fall prey to her Semblance directly, finding themselves behind her and off-balance from the aborted cuts. Before either guard could get his bearings, Dandy walked straight into the large, impressively-carved, and definitely-closed wooden door leading into General Ironwood's office, and promptly fell on her back.

General Ironwood was just about to conclude an interview with a promising candidate for the academy when he heard something run into his door. His office was soundproofed to keep private conversations inside the office from getting out, but that had also kept local alarms in the armor of the guards and the sounds of accidental carnage outside from getting in. Ironwood hung up on the previous conversation, which was already finished bar the formalities, and opened his door to investigate. Immediately he was made aware of the various alarms blaring, as well as radio chatter from the guards' scrolls yelling things like _"Is she even real?" "We've got wounded!"_ and other such indicators of an armed intruder. The teenage Faunus girl sprawled in front of the doorway didn't exactly look the part, but then again, who _did_ look as tough as they were? As Ironwood watched, the girl shook her head and suddenly bolted upright, then groaned in exasperation.

"Aw, wasps! I caused another scene! Wait, where is this?" This was the first time she'd audibly spoken since her arrival, barring the unprovoked giggles and wordless whistles earlier. She looked up with an uncertain smile, and saw the most important military official in Atlas looming over her. "Oh, dear. Did I bust into Skylight while I was daydreaming? Usually I end up in tamer places, like the bank vault. I'm very sorry, General Ironwood, sir! Dandy Lionel, at your service, at least until I zone out again!" Dandy jumped to her feet and tried a salute, still smiling.

General Ironwood assessed the risks and potential rewards of the plan that he found leaking into his head. He really shouldn't do this. Professor Ozpin might thrive on "bending the rules" for obtuse and flimsy rationalizations, but Ironwood had founded his whole career by the books, and the books said to lock this girl up and throw away the key. On the other hand, incarcerating her in a jail or asylum would be an enormous waste of her immense destructive potential, an energy that could be beneficial to all of mankind if given purpose and direction rather than limitations. Ugh, now even Ironwood's inner dialogue mirrored Ozpin's speech rehearsal for this year's arrivals at Beacon. (He'd heard it when Ozpin was running late for a strategy meeting a few weeks ago. He seemed to flout his lack of discipline like an honor badge, but Ironwood couldn't shake the feeling that it was all an act.) Once again, Ironwood was forced to admit that Ozpin often had a strong point to his dramatic ramblings, even if the intended point remained difficult to grasp until much later on, and the gist of it was never telling anyone to "follow protocol." Ironwood made up his mind.

"Well, Dandy Lionel, you have saved me the trouble of going out there myself..."

"Oh dear, I'm in trouble now, aren't I?"

"...And searching for one last talented candidate to attend Skylight Academy this semester. Would you like the spot?"

"Um, sure, why not? It might be nice to wake up in the same place twice in a row. Do I need to sign forms, or register my 'Wind-Winner' war fan set somewhere?" Dandy tried to peer past Ironwood's impressive suit at the stack of paperwork on his desk.

"Not to worry. I'll handle the paperwork. I'll upload a map to your scroll; be at the main hall at 1800 hours." Dandy's scroll beeped in her pocket.

"Yes, sir!" the girl turned around, yellow ponytail swishing behind her. As she left earshot, Ironwood heard her muse to herself, "This is still only the second-weirdest place I've woken up this week."

 **DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD**

 _Author's Notes and Assumptions: I'm not sure if Semblances have individual names, or even if "Semblance" is spelled with a capital S. Just in case, I have prepared names for Rust's Semblance, "Juggernaut," and Dandy's ability, "Heedless." Her Semblance is a passive ability that can activate without her knowledge, though only from the front. If she's aware of an attack, she can use Heedless to phase through assaults from any direction, though that requires her to be aware that she's in combat in the first place. If she's daydreaming, only attacks that come at her head-on will be subject to the effect. Her pool of Aura to draw on for her Semblance is somewhat higher than average._

 _Not an Assumption One: Racism and discrimination against the Faunus is present throughout Remnant, not just in Vale. Obviously, since Atlas is the seat of the Schnee Dust Company, an infamous source of racist policies, the practices that the White Fang continually protest and fight against are particularly common in that country._

 _Iffy Assumption Two: Some small villages have been established and destroyed in the most recent generation. Dandy hails from one of these failed colonial efforts._

 _Foolish Assumption Three: Cinder's grandiose yet mysterious plan is mostly focused on Vale right now, meaning students in Atlas aren't likely to come into contact with her operations directly. However, the Atlesian economy is suffering from poor trade with other nations, due to all that Dust getting stolen, resulting in a tense social atmosphere and people being generally crabby._

 _Silly Rabbit, Assumptions are Four Kids! The team assignment/examination event at Skylight is identical to the process at Beacon, and indeed the same as every Academy. The difference is what gets used for the "relics," and the specific Grimm species inhabiting the wilderness between the students and their goal._

 _Rather than do another Legally Useless Disclaimer, I'll merely ask you readers to remember what every single disclaimer you've ever seen looks like, and reproduce that image with a footnote that disclaimers aren't worth anything in court._


End file.
